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I walk up and touch her shoulder lightly, stepping back as she jumps when my hand touches her.
“I’m sorry, Cassidy. I just wanted to find out if you’re alright.”
She shakes her head, her pretty face pale and a little green. “I don’t think I am.” She glances around on the walls of the buildings out back. “Are there any cameras out here?”
Shaking my head, I watch her eyes grow dim. “Of course not! That’s why he felt free to do this.”
Her slim hand waves at her car and my eyes follow her hand, narrowing in fury.
Bitchis written all over her car, scratched into the paint so that she’s going to have to have it repainted. She’s shaking and tears pool in her soft grey eyes.
“Ash. Ash did this and I’m never going to be able to prove it. The bastard,” she says bitterly.
“I think you should call Gage and get him out here to do a report. And then tow the car. I’ll walk you home.”
Her head is already shaking. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask, I offered. And you need to preserve everything for insurance. Getting it to a garage will keep it all intact and should make the review go faster.” I didn’t tell her that it would also make it easier for the police to go over the car for any kind of evidence. Not that I think they’ll find it. The guy is unhinged but he seems to be a master at keeping himself out of the spotlight except for that one time.
“I guess,” she sighs and pulls her phone out to call Gage. I tune out the conversation, walking around the car and noticing that it looks like the car door might not be closed all the way. When I walk around the car and take another look at it, I can clearly see that it looks like the hood isn’t closed up all the way. I make a note to tell Gage that he needs to look under the hood.
I’m not sure what he might have done to it but it seems like a good idea to check before the car is moved.
I wait patiently for Gage to show up and it only takes him minutes. He steps out of his car and frowns at Cassidy’s car. “Jesus! What the hell?”
She groans. “I know! It looks bad, doesn’t it?”
“I’ll say. That’s not gonna be just a paint job. It’s gonna take some buffing and maybe bondo filler. “
Cassidy’s face falls. “I was kinda hoping it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
Gage reaches out to hug her and I fight an overwhelming urge to rearrange my friend’s face. She turns into his shoulder and groans. “When the Sheriff gives you a hug it’s worse than I thought.”
Fighting a smile at how cute she sounds, even upset, I wave at the car. “Well, what do you think?”
Gage sighs. “I think that this is going to be a bad thing all the way round, Cassie. And I think that we all know who did it, but the question is whether we can actually prove it or not.”
“There’s no video back here,” I say and Gage nods, eyeing the walls. “I know. I keep telling all of the businesses around here that they need to start looking at things like that. Security is a big issue. You need to cover every single thing that you can to make sure you see everything you can. The world’s not a nice place anymore.”
Cassidy scoffs. “Wildwood is.”
“Really? So what’s up with your car?”
Her face falls and I fight that horrible inclination to rip Gage’s face off again. Dude deserves it for making her so unhappy.
“The bottom line is that it’s gonna be awhile before you get your car back. We’ll have to look over it and try to find any evidence that he might have left before it can be fixed. We’ll try and be quick but I want to be as thorough as possible because it’s the only way that we’re going to get this guy.”
“Did you look under the hood?” I ask.
Cassidy jerks and stares at me. “Why?”
“Nothing, Cassidy. But maybe you could give me a second with Gage.”
Her pretty mouth tightens. “Don’t patronize me, Franklin. What is going on?”
Flicking my eyes over at Gage, he just nods his head and moves towards the car.
“Okay. I noticed that one of her doors was partly open. Just a smidge. And then the hood wasn’t quite all the way down.”
